Seize the day and make your move like the pros do
Opportunities are all around, but most of us miss them because they’re disguised as obstacles, complaints, and hard work. The people we consider successes know how to spot opportunities; they can turn challenges into chances. Opportunity may knock, but you’re better off doing cold calls on opportunity instead of waiting for a visit.
After this post, I hope you start using the word “opportunity” rather than “obstacle.” Even that small change can spark a positive shift in your mindset. Ready to learn more tips to take advantage of opportunities like a villain? To help us we’ll have Albert Wesker, arguably the best villain of the Resident Evil franchise, and an opportunist of the highest caliber.
Not familiar with Wesker?
You’re in for a treat! Watch the video. You’ll be glad you did.
Onward!
Forget your definition of “Opportunity”:
Mirriam-Webster defines Opportunity as:
1. a favorable juncture of circumstances
2. a good chance for advancement or progress
That’s wide-open and leaves lots of room for laziness. A better definition is:
1. Anything that gives you a chance to improve or change your circumstances.
2. A problem, obstacle, challenge, complaint, disadvantage, weakness.
We think of opportunities as sparkly, clearly marked gifts we can take advantage of with no work. False! Opportunity involves change. We don’t like change, because it’s uncomfortable, unsettling, and unpredictable. Taking full advantage of opportunities takes hard work and practice.
It took Wesker years of effort and multiple projects to collect the virus samples he needed to be a powerhouse on the Bio Organic Weaponry front.
As I mentioned at the start of the article, start calling problems/obstacles/challenges opportunities instead. The shift of perspective trains your brain to identify opportunities. Challenges give us the opportunity to grow mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially.
Wesker saw the weakness in Umbrella Corporation as a chance to become a freelancer
*. His choice put him closer to his desire: Power. He didn’t wait for the perfect time or situation. Instead he acted early and quickly, collecting virus samples and company data. This gave him an edge on his competitors.
People matter, like it or not:
People are often a source of obstacles opportunities. They hold the answers. They have resources, knowledge, expertise, creativity, and experience you lack. Your network is powerful. Improve it and it will improve your chance of success. I don’t care if you’re not a people person. Network with the right people: creative people who make you think outside the box about your life, problems, and circumstances.
Do a network check:
- ♦ Who’s in it?
- ♦ How strong are the connections?
- ♦ How can you increase the connections’ strength?
- ♦ Who doesn’t know you but would be great to have on board?
Wesker is not a people person. He views people as means to an end, but he knows how to expand his network. He worked with Excella Gionne even though he considered her beneath him. Connecting with her allowed him access to Tricell, a company he needed to develop the ultimate viral strain, Uroboros
*.
The Opportunistic mentality:
Being “opportunistic” is often used as a slur, but that’s uncalled for. It simply means you’re ready to take advantage of the opportunities around you.
You’ll need a max out a few attributes to be a grand-master opportunist:
-
♦ Inquisitiveness:
Ask and wonder why. Asking the right questions leads to the right answers. — Wesker asked who else would want the viruses.
-
♦ Tenacity:
Bending obstacles into opportunities takes time and effort. — It took Wesker over a decade
* to grow his power and resources to their height,
-
♦ Assertiveness:
Confidence in your resources and ability to use them makes others more willing to follow you. — Wesker never doubted his ability to achieve his goals.“The right to be a god is now mine” – that’s confidence!
When the shades come off, it’s about to get real -
Optimism:
A positive outlook helps you overcome setbacks. — Even when defeated in one battle, Wesker knew the war was open for winning.
-
♦ Responsibility:
If you want all the credit, be willing to take all the blame. If you blame others, then that means you can’t change your situation, because you can’t change others. — Wesker took charge of his decisions.
-
♦ Foresight:
Looking ahead at possibilities that could spring from a problem helps you take advantage of opportunities. — Wesker saw a future where he ruled as a god.
Identifying opportunities: a field guide:
Opportunities come in infinite varieties. An opportunity to one person is a waste of time to another. Know what you want to achieve in life, or at least in the next five minutes. Then tune your sights to search for the opportunities that are right for you. Imagine what those opportunities might look like. How will they emerge?
Wesker wanted power, so he pursued opportunities that would give him authority, advantage, and adaptability.
Know thyself, because you’re your greatest enemy:
What personal beliefs/biases stand in the way of you seizing opportunities?
- ♦ What are your weaknesses?
- ♦ How do they hurt you?
- ♦ What strengths do you need?
- ♦ How will they help you?
Wesker knew what he did best and what he needed more of. He realized when he was outmatched by Alexia Ashford
* and backed off, finding a virus sample by taking the infected body of Steve.
Risky business: your cup of tea?:
Afraid of risk? That’s fine to a point. Step one is to know your risk threshold. Some people thrive on risk, while it makes others want to take a Xanax. Identify your risk tolerance. The more risk you are willing and able to take, the more chances/opportunities you’ll be able to take advantage of.
- ♦ What are you willing to risk?
- ♦ What are you willing to lose?
- ♦ What do you have to lose?
- ♦ How much can you realistically afford to lose?
Motivation Grid adds you should be willing to take a risk: “You might fall, get hurt, or be embarrassed, but what if you could experience something that is completely mind-blowing and changes your life forever.”
In the Mansion Incident, Wesker saw that he didn’t have much to lose but he had much to gain. He could afford to lose the STARS Alpha Team
*. He could afford to lose his humanity to the Prototype virus in exchange for the awesome power it bestowed upon him.
Heads up: maintain a readiness mindset:
The paramount, critical, most important (did mention paramount?) key to taking advantage of opportunities is to always be ready for them. You’re constantly on the lookout for advantages. Anything that could even remotely help you needs to be on your radar and preferably in your back pocket.
I repeat, stay awake! Keep your eyes open!
This is your battle plan:
- ♦ Know what’s happening. Be present in the moment.
- ♦ Know why it’s happening.
- ♦ Know the intriguing aspects of it.
- ♦ Know what it means/could mean.
- ♦ Know how/if it could benefit you.
- ♦ Know what to do to seize the opportunity.
Boost your confidence by telling yourself that all obstacles are opportunities for you if you look and work hard enough.
Wesker saw everything, even betrayals, as a chance for advancement. He saw his and Birkin’s failure to destroy the lab and secure the Ecliptic Express
* as an opportunity to test the BOWs against trained combat troops. Throughout his life he displays many instances of employing this battle plan.
See the patterns in life and your rivals:
Trends, common complaints, vacancies in the market, patterns, events, situations – all offer clues to opportunities.
Another pattern to recognize is your rivals’ organizational habits. Devote the majority of your time to analyzing them. What’s their MO? What tactics and strategies do they routinely employ? Know these and preempt them. And don’t forget to watch for new rivals!
When you see what’s predictable, you will also learn how to become unpredictable. A moving target is hard to hit. Often this means destroying your old systems for doing things. That’s a necessary evil, as it keeps things fresh. Getting a jump on the competition demands radical change. In biz lingo this is called a Skunkworks Project. And always keep your motives, goals, and strategies to yourself.
Wesker saw the pattern of backstabbing and corruption in Umbrella Corp. He got out while he could, with a betrayal of his own. He also knew the STARS teams were trusting of him, which allowed him to test the BOWs against them without raising the officers’ suspicions. He used many different tactics throughout his life.
Aim for complete global saturation: expand your reach:
Go out of your way to learn and experience new things. You never know when this will help you or put you in touch with someone who can help you.
Be willing to tackle bigger and bigger challenges. Get out of your comfort zone. It means risk and uncertainty, but remember: nothing risked, nothing gained. But also remember you choose your choices but not their consequences.
Wesker took the risk of injecting himself with the virus and getting impaled by the Tyrant. It paid off big time with superhuman speed, strength, regeneration, and resistance.
Do these 3 things if you want to fail:
- ♦ Follow the herd.
- ♦ Put comfort and ease above all else.
- ♦ Think negatively.
Think bomber BIG, think 6 billion people BIG:
You get what you give. Many opportunities pay according to how much time/effort/money you invest in them.
Wesker worked on his power base and virus strain until he had the ability to infect the entire global population with the Uroboros virus and usher in the next step in human evolution
*. Oh, and his own dominion as a demi god, of course.
What are you waiting for? Act!:
Identify the opportunity as it appears. What’s its half life? How quickly do you have to move to take advantage of it? Realize that short-window opportunities carry a risk of hasty decisions. Emotions can get caught up too. Know the risks/benefit ratio. Know your resources. Then make an exit strategy if you have to abandon ship.
Also ask yourself:
- ♦ What’s the overarching goal?
- ♦ Is the outcome controllable by you?
- ♦ If not, what/who controls it?
- ♦ How can you sway them to you will?
- ♦ Is this the right time/place?
- ♦ How do you know?
- ♦ How rare is this opportunity?
- ♦ What does your intuition/gut say about this?
Wesker had only moments to inject himself with the virus and decide to fake his death at the claws of the Tyrant. Many years of practicing the above questions cut his decision cycle time down considerably.
Learn from victory and setback:
What was right and was wrong about your latest endeavor? What’s the take-away message? The moral of the story? What do you need to change to improve the next round?
Even when he suffered setbacks at the hands of the BSAA and Chris Redfield, Wesker came back stronger each time because he learned from his successes and failures. He knew Chris would come for his sister, so Wesker used Claire as bait to get to Chris.
Caveat:
Just because you’ve identified and seized an opportunity doesn’t mean you’ll succeed. I repeat: there is no guarantee of success.
Despite his superhuman physical abilities, global resources, and genius intellect, Chris and Sheva still defeated Wesker after he overdosed on Uroboros and landed in a volcano.
Still hoping to see a revival
Much gratitude to…
IQ Matrix for their amazing article on taking advantage of opportunities in life. They have a shiny little mind map to help you, too. Go read their article: How to unlock opportunities, by
Other sources:
5 Reasons Why People Fail to Take Advantage of Opportunities – Underground Success
6 Ways To Snap Up Opportunities Your Competitors May Miss – American Express Open Forum
How To Take Advantage of Opportunities in Your Life – Motivation Grid
Further reading:
Understanding James “Jim” Moriarty: How he can help us succeed in life (Part 2)
Understanding Jareth the Goblin King: How he can help us succeed in life – (Part 2)
Knowledge is power: further reading off-site:
5 Ideas to Spot an Opportunity – Rajesh Stetty –– #3 is Wesker all over
111 Ways to Seize the Moment – Abundance Tapestry –– #s 11, 23, 33, 45, 48, 53, and 95 are Wesker approved
How to Find Life-Changing Opportunity in the Worst Situation – Paid to Exist — “Your worse case is often your current case.” Collapsing mansion? Tyrant attack?
How to See and Seize Life’s Opportunities – Life Optimizer — “Sow many seeds.” You mean complete global saturation?
Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments. Perform your own assessment with the Villain Matrix. Use the Villain Matrix spreadsheet that come free when you join the Research Team, where you’ll also get our newsletter with its exclusive updates and content.
(*Affiliate link, meaning you get a movie/series/book/game/whatever, I get a few pennies, and everybody’s happy!)
6 Ways To Snap Up Opportunities Your Competitors May Miss
Succeeding in today’s ever-changing business world demands that you stay ahead of your competition. If you’re running a business, you probably already understand this.
But how do you pull it off? Here are six ways to take advantage of lucrative opportunities your competitors miss.
Obsess over your competitors
To take advantage of opportunities, watch everything that your competitor does. You probably spend most of your time reacting to competitors, adjusting to what they’ve done. That drains you of the energy to execute well and keeps you from being ready for new opportunities when they emerge.
Spend less time planning what you will do and more time analyzing your competitors. To help motivate you, think about how competitors can take market share from you and damage your business. Consider assigning a person or small team to this task.
Pay attention to upstart rivals
If you ignore competitors that you think won’t amount to much, it could hurt you badly. Craigslist and Google had a significant impact on newspapers. Most traditional papers didn’t think much of the upstarts at first, and those older media outlets are out of business now.
Pay attention to new competitors. You can learn new ways to use the technologies you’re used to. You might discover business models that could drastically change the marketplace.
Most of your competitors will probably ignore the new guys, which means you have a better chance of survival.
Become unpredictable
Don’t forget that your competitors are probably watching you. They study where they can take advantage of your habits. When you develop predictable habits, you become an easy target.
You have to be unpredictable. A great strategy is to conceal your moves.
Google doesn’t announce when it makes changes to its search algorithm. Journalists and bloggers uncover that information. Google also hides its algorithm, keeping SEO companies and competitors from gaming it.
Apple does a lot of pre-selling, but in a secretive way. This keeps competitors in the dark about weak organizational habits, while they drum up loads of free publicity.
It’s hard to control information in huge organizations, so leaks happen. But if your operation is smaller, keep a tight lip and stay unpredictable. Your moves will be easier to pull off.
Go after competitors’ organizational habits
As you change your organizational habits to keep your competitors on their toes, try to find what your competitor is doing that is routine.
“We find [Oracle is] a great opportunity creator,” says Steve Mills, IBM’s head of software and systems, emphasizing that all businesses want to make money.
“Oracle does this at the expense of their clients…making them a good company to compete against,” says Mills. “They use schoolyard bully tactics, they make a lot of claims they can’t back up, and they tend to back away from benchmarks and any real-world evaluation of their technology.”
When you see a weakness in a competitor like Oracle, go after it. You’ll grab the profit that your competitor is missing.
Destroy what you do
This may sound suicidal, but if you want to innovate, you have to disrupt your own business, profit model and product. It’s how you’ll get a jump on your competitor.
Some companies have entire divisions devoted to disruption called skunk works. The lucrative opportunities that follow radical innovation demand that you constantly change the way you do things. Try to make creative destruction a part of your organizational culture.
Why is this important?
“Corporations are built on the assumption of continuity; their focus is on operations,” according to Idris Mootee. “Capital markets are built on the assumption of discontinuity; their focus is on creation and destruction.”
In other words, if you are to beat your competitors, you need to change.
He suggests companies do several things, including:
- Open up decision-making processes.
- Relax conventional notions of control.
- Change at the pace and scale of the market.
If you refuse to make these kinds of changes, your performance can slide into mediocrity. You can miss the opportunities that allow you to grow year after year. You’ll let your competitor dominate.
Don’t listen to the customer
If you ask for feedback from customers at the early stages of innovation you might shoot yourself in the foot because customers don’t always know what they want. Do you think Apple customers knew they wanted an iPad before it was built? Probably not.
You have to first figure out what you are going to create and then get feedback from customers after it’s created. Don’t get feedback beforehand; it can slow down innovation.
Getting ahead of the competition demands revolutionary change. That occurs when you create something that breaks with the past and generates a whole new curve in how we live and do things.
In the printing business, new opportunities didn’t come about by creating new fonts for the daisy wheel printer. It came about when a company invented laser printing. The competition didn’t see the innovation and customers couldn’t tell them to do it.
Take advantage of those opportunities
When you dedicate energy to looking for opportunities that your competitors miss, you will be a market leader for a long time. It’s a proven strategy for the growth of a profitable business.
Can you suggest any other ways to jump on opportunities before your competitors?
6 Ways To Snap Up Opportunities Your Competitors May Miss
Succeeding in today’s ever-changing business world demands that you stay ahead of your competition. If you’re running a business, you probably already understand this.
But how do you pull it off? Here are six ways to take advantage of lucrative opportunities your competitors miss.
Obsess over your competitors
To take advantage of opportunities, watch everything that your competitor does. You probably spend most of your time reacting to competitors, adjusting to what they’ve done. That drains you of the energy to execute well and keeps you from being ready for new opportunities when they emerge.
Spend less time planning what you will do and more time analyzing your competitors. To help motivate you, think about how competitors can take market share from you and damage your business. Consider assigning a person or small team to this task.
Pay attention to upstart rivals
If you ignore competitors that you think won’t amount to much, it could hurt you badly. Craigslist and Google had a significant impact on newspapers. Most traditional papers didn’t think much of the upstarts at first, and those older media outlets are out of business now.
Pay attention to new competitors. You can learn new ways to use the technologies you’re used to. You might discover business models that could drastically change the marketplace.
Most of your competitors will probably ignore the new guys, which means you have a better chance of survival.
Become unpredictable
Don’t forget that your competitors are probably watching you. They study where they can take advantage of your habits. When you develop predictable habits, you become an easy target.
You have to be unpredictable. A great strategy is to conceal your moves.
Google doesn’t announce when it makes changes to its search algorithm. Journalists and bloggers uncover that information. Google also hides its algorithm, keeping SEO companies and competitors from gaming it.
Apple does a lot of pre-selling, but in a secretive way. This keeps competitors in the dark about weak organizational habits, while they drum up loads of free publicity.
It’s hard to control information in huge organizations, so leaks happen. But if your operation is smaller, keep a tight lip and stay unpredictable. Your moves will be easier to pull off.
Go after competitors’ organizational habits
As you change your organizational habits to keep your competitors on their toes, try to find what your competitor is doing that is routine.
“We find [Oracle is] a great opportunity creator,” says Steve Mills, IBM’s head of software and systems, emphasizing that all businesses want to make money.
“Oracle does this at the expense of their clients…making them a good company to compete against,” says Mills. “They use schoolyard bully tactics, they make a lot of claims they can’t back up, and they tend to back away from benchmarks and any real-world evaluation of their technology.”
When you see a weakness in a competitor like Oracle, go after it. You’ll grab the profit that your competitor is missing.
Destroy what you do
This may sound suicidal, but if you want to innovate, you have to disrupt your own business, profit model and product. It’s how you’ll get a jump on your competitor.
Some companies have entire divisions devoted to disruption called skunk works. The lucrative opportunities that follow radical innovation demand that you constantly change the way you do things. Try to make creative destruction a part of your organizational culture.
Why is this important?
“Corporations are built on the assumption of continuity; their focus is on operations,” according to Idris Mootee. “Capital markets are built on the assumption of discontinuity; their focus is on creation and destruction.”
In other words, if you are to beat your competitors, you need to change.
He suggests companies do several things, including:
- Open up decision-making processes.
- Relax conventional notions of control.
- Change at the pace and scale of the market.
If you refuse to make these kinds of changes, your performance can slide into mediocrity. You can miss the opportunities that allow you to grow year after year. You’ll let your competitor dominate.
Don’t listen to the customer
If you ask for feedback from customers at the early stages of innovation you might shoot yourself in the foot because customers don’t always know what they want. Do you think Apple customers knew they wanted an iPad before it was built? Probably not.
You have to first figure out what you are going to create and then get feedback from customers after it’s created. Don’t get feedback beforehand; it can slow down innovation.
Getting ahead of the competition demands revolutionary change. That occurs when you create something that breaks with the past and generates a whole new curve in how we live and do things.
In the printing business, new opportunities didn’t come about by creating new fonts for the daisy wheel printer. It came about when a company invented laser printing. The competition didn’t see the innovation and customers couldn’t tell them to do it.
Take advantage of those opportunities
When you dedicate energy to looking for opportunities that your competitors miss, you will be a market leader for a long time. It’s a proven strategy for the growth of a profitable business.
Can you suggest any other ways to jump on opportunities before your competitors?
6 Ways To Snap Up Opportunities Your Competitors May Miss
Succeeding in today’s ever-changing business world demands that you stay ahead of your competition. If you’re running a business, you probably already understand this.
But how do you pull it off? Here are six ways to take advantage of lucrative opportunities your competitors miss.
Obsess over your competitors
To take advantage of opportunities, watch everything that your competitor does. You probably spend most of your time reacting to competitors, adjusting to what they’ve done. That drains you of the energy to execute well and keeps you from being ready for new opportunities when they emerge.
Spend less time planning what you will do and more time analyzing your competitors. To help motivate you, think about how competitors can take market share from you and damage your business. Consider assigning a person or small team to this task.
Pay attention to upstart rivals
If you ignore competitors that you think won’t amount to much, it could hurt you badly. Craigslist and Google had a significant impact on newspapers. Most traditional papers didn’t think much of the upstarts at first, and those older media outlets are out of business now.
Pay attention to new competitors. You can learn new ways to use the technologies you’re used to. You might discover business models that could drastically change the marketplace.
Most of your competitors will probably ignore the new guys, which means you have a better chance of survival.
Become unpredictable
Don’t forget that your competitors are probably watching you. They study where they can take advantage of your habits. When you develop predictable habits, you become an easy target.
You have to be unpredictable. A great strategy is to conceal your moves.
Google doesn’t announce when it makes changes to its search algorithm. Journalists and bloggers uncover that information. Google also hides its algorithm, keeping SEO companies and competitors from gaming it.
Apple does a lot of pre-selling, but in a secretive way. This keeps competitors in the dark about weak organizational habits, while they drum up loads of free publicity.
It’s hard to control information in huge organizations, so leaks happen. But if your operation is smaller, keep a tight lip and stay unpredictable. Your moves will be easier to pull off.
Go after competitors’ organizational habits
As you change your organizational habits to keep your competitors on their toes, try to find what your competitor is doing that is routine.
“We find [Oracle is] a great opportunity creator,” says Steve Mills, IBM’s head of software and systems, emphasizing that all businesses want to make money.
“Oracle does this at the expense of their clients…making them a good company to compete against,” says Mills. “They use schoolyard bully tactics, they make a lot of claims they can’t back up, and they tend to back away from benchmarks and any real-world evaluation of their technology.”
When you see a weakness in a competitor like Oracle, go after it. You’ll grab the profit that your competitor is missing.
Destroy what you do
This may sound suicidal, but if you want to innovate, you have to disrupt your own business, profit model and product. It’s how you’ll get a jump on your competitor.
Some companies have entire divisions devoted to disruption called skunk works. The lucrative opportunities that follow radical innovation demand that you constantly change the way you do things. Try to make creative destruction a part of your organizational culture.
Why is this important?
“Corporations are built on the assumption of continuity; their focus is on operations,” according to Idris Mootee. “Capital markets are built on the assumption of discontinuity; their focus is on creation and destruction.”
In other words, if you are to beat your competitors, you need to change.
He suggests companies do several things, including:
- Open up decision-making processes.
- Relax conventional notions of control.
- Change at the pace and scale of the market.
If you refuse to make these kinds of changes, your performance can slide into mediocrity. You can miss the opportunities that allow you to grow year after year. You’ll let your competitor dominate.
Don’t listen to the customer
If you ask for feedback from customers at the early stages of innovation you might shoot yourself in the foot because customers don’t always know what they want. Do you think Apple customers knew they wanted an iPad before it was built? Probably not.
You have to first figure out what you are going to create and then get feedback from customers after it’s created. Don’t get feedback beforehand; it can slow down innovation.
Getting ahead of the competition demands revolutionary change. That occurs when you create something that breaks with the past and generates a whole new curve in how we live and do things.
In the printing business, new opportunities didn’t come about by creating new fonts for the daisy wheel printer. It came about when a company invented laser printing. The competition didn’t see the innovation and customers couldn’t tell them to do it.
Take advantage of those opportunities
When you dedicate energy to looking for opportunities that your competitors miss, you will be a market leader for a long time. It’s a proven strategy for the growth of a profitable business.
Can you suggest any other ways to jump on opportunities before your competitors?